Among the Prototypes
by Amledo
Summary: A fluffy little Bruce/Tony piece that sparked from my imagination when I saw the production pictures of the 'Iron Patriot' armor, which I am now aware is actually War Machine, but let's not get picky. Has almost nothing to do with Iron Patriot, but it needed a jumping off point. Fluff and science inside.


(A/N: So I saw a production picture today of the Iron Patriot armor. Looks pretty amazing, but the suit pilot is not Norman Osborne, I have no clue who it is. So you should be aware that this is just mad speculation and silliness on my part. I do not own the Avengers or Iron Man. This is just me being stupid and wanting to write a bit of Bruce/Tony schmoop. It's a word. I swear it. Well I think that's all that I need to worry about mentioning. On with the show.)

Among the Prototypes

Bruce Banner was a dangerous man; he had been for years and years. At times he was nothing more than a cage for a monster and he was very aware of that fact. He spent most of his time holding the key to that cage just out of the monster's reach. But he was slowly coming to accept that there wasn't Bruce and the monster, there was Bruce and Bruce when he got big and green. It wouldn't be a process that he had ever planned on experiencing except for one thing.

Tony Stark.

The dark haired billionaire made a game out of antagonizing the monster when Bruce was around and talking to Bruce when the monster was around. He did it so regularly that the monster began to like the man almost as much as Bruce liked him. That was the problem; they both liked Tony, an awful lot.

Tony was currently across the lab shouting obscenities at a robot, waving his arms in wide arcs, his voice pitchy with irritation. Bruce loved the intelligence; he loved the analytical mind and barefaced courage that Tony possessed. The Hulk loved the chaos that Tony brought with him, the madness, the fearlessness and the fact that Tony spoke to him like he wasn't something to be avoided. And when Bruce and Hulk agreed, the world was a happier place.

"Tony, do you mind explaining to me why you feel the need to make yourself yet another new suit of armor? And what's with the stars and stripes motif? Crushing a little on the Captain are we?" Bruce asked casually, waving the little robot away to safety. He and Tony had an excellent rapport and Bruce had slowly learned that he could be openly sarcastic around the billionaire without offense. A snappy comeback, but not offense.

"This one isn't for me Green Bean. This one is for Cap. The Iron Patriot. We figured that he needs a suit, not all the time obviously, but if we run into acid monsters, or fire monsters, or those freaky plasma monsters, Cap needs to be able to do more than hang back and shout orders. Do you love it or do you love it?" Tony said and his lips pulled up into a big childish grin. Bruce could always tell when Tony was being a showboat about something, and this time he was aware that the pride was entirely genuine. Tony spent days at a stretch awake and worrying over how to better protect the team.

"Sure I do. Definitely way less gaudy than yours, just like the Captain," Bruce said with a grin and gave Tony a little nudge in the ribs.

"I keep telling you man, Gryffindor is the way to be," Tony replied with an even bigger smirk. Some days their lab, and Bruce wasn't sure when it became theirs, it just had, absolutely stank of bullshit and sarcasm. Bruce rolled his eyes and railed his fingers over the armor, inspecting the minute differences in the structure that allowed for the shield, which was special to Steve. Even with a set of armor, there would be no convincing the Captain to give it up.

"Has he seen it yet?" Bruce asked, leaving the sarcasm behind and moving into their more scientific tone.

"He designed it. The shape, pattern, colors are all taken from his sketchbook. So yeah, he has a good idea of what it will look like. But I didn't tell him that I was going to be working on it. I wanted to surprise him; it's his birthday in a couple days so…" Tony blushed as he put the armor away, he didn't like to be caught caring especially not about Steve Rogers. It went against his sarcastic jackass image. To call attention away from Steve's gift Tony pulled up a new set of designs. "This one is going to be for Tasha, I don't have a name for it yet. This Is for Clint, he calls it War Hawk, bow built into the arm, extra storage for more arrowheads, the whole shebang. I haven't designed one for Thor or Loki; I doubt that they would like the insult to their Godliness. And I'm filthy rich but I would be broke overnight if the Big Guy decided that you in armor wasn't the safest place for you one too many times," Tony said but that didn't keep Bruce from noticing a file with his name on it.

He pulled up the icon and the folder opened. The physicist was left awestruck at the sheer number of designs Tony had put together trying to work out the problem. The first one was a simple replica of Tony's own armor done in shining green and silver. The progressive models were all larger and contained collapsible segments or employed an experimental type of stretchable metal. But none could quite cover the transformation or make up the difference between Bruce and Hulk. The fact that tony had tried though, was rather touching. The Hulk was all but purring.

"Tony…this is…you didn't have to," Bruce breathed as he tried to get himself under control, Hulk happy was a strange feeling.

"Maybe, maybe not. I like the Hulk, don't get me wrong, the Big Guy was a hell of a party. But there are times when I wish that we had your mind in battle. And it would cut down on the whole you passing out thing and if you didn't have to change as often then you might feel more comfortable around people. I don't want to get rid of the Hulk, I'm a fan of his work, just sometimes I want you you to have my back," Tony said and there was that blush again. Bruce experienced one of those rare moments in which he and the Hulk were in total agreement.

He didn't have to worry about the Hulk coming out to play and so he was confident when he leaned in and kissed Tony. One hand came up to cradle the back of the billionaire's head and the other found a place on Tony's hip. Tony kissing him back was like a sigh, all of the tension melted out of the inventor's body and strong arms wrapped around Bruce's waist, completing the embrace.

"Thank you Tony, for just being here and being you. Thank you for seeing both of us," Bruce whispered as he took a moment to appreciate the softness of Tony's hair between his fingers. Chocolate eyes held his gaze for a long moment, Tony's mind was overloaded between the kiss and the sentiment and so Bruce joined their lips in another kiss.

"It's not a matter of seeing both of you. I just see all of you Bruce. Even I know that you can't fall in love with someone if you only look at part of the picture," Tony stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And when Bruce's face lit up in an impossible grin his eyes glowed briefly green and Tony knew that Hulk was smiling too.

(A/N: So that was my first official Bruce/Tony fic. Let me know what you thought of it and thanks again for reading.)


End file.
